Respondent Information Form and Questions
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Respondent Information Form and Questions Please Note this form must be returned with your response to ensure that we handle your response appropriately 1. Name/Organisation Organisation Name Title Mr x Ms Mrs Miss Dr Please tick as appropriate Surname Buchan Forename Alan 2. Postal Address The Manse Fort William Road Newtonmore Inverness-shire Email Postcode PH20 1DG Phone 01540 673238 [email protected] 3. Permissions - I am responding as… Individual / Group/Organisation X Please tick as appropriate (a) Do you agree to your response being made (c) The name and address of your organisation available to the public (in Scottish will be made available to the public (in the Government library and/or on the Scottish Scottish Government library and/or on the Government web site)? Scottish Government web site). Please tick as appropriate X Yes No (b) Where confidentiality is not requested, we Are you content for your response to be will make your responses available to the made available? public on the following basis Please tick ONE of the following boxes Please tick as appropriate X Yes No Yes, make my response, name X and address all available or Yes, make my response available, but not my name and address or Yes, make my response and name available, but not my address (d) We will share your response internally with other Scottish Government policy teams who may be addressing the issues you discuss. They may wish to contact you again in the future, but we require your permission to do so. Are you content for Scottish Government to contact you again in relation to this consultation exercise? Please tick as appropriate X Yes No Consultation Questions The answer boxes will expand as you type. Procuring rail passenger services 1. What are the merits of offering the ScotRail franchise as a dual focus franchise and what services should be covered by the economic rail element, and what by the social rail element? Q1 comments: A good balance 50-50 between the two factors is needed. 2. What should be the length of the contract for future franchises, and what factors lead you to this view? Q2 comments: Six years is good, giving time to plan, but enough incentive to perform well at any time during this short period. 3. What risk support mechanism should be reflected within the franchise? Q3 comments: There should perhaps be the sanction of franchise withdrawal, or subsidy withdrawal, in extreme circumstances. 4. What, if any, profit share mechanism should apply within the franchise? Q4 comments: I am not a businessman, but a profit share of 20% seems sufficient? 5. Under what terms should third parties be involved in the operation of passenger rail services? Q5 comments: Government, local authorities and community councils should all be given a say, but there should be facility for Scotrail to appeal if local councillors without detailed knowledge cause problems. 6. What is the best way to structure and incentivise the achievement of outcome measures whilst ensuring value for money? Q6 comments: Question not altogether understood ! 7. What level of performance bond and/or parent company guarantees are appropriate? Q7 comments: Maximum guarantees which the parent companies can give should be acceptable. 8. What sanctions should be used to ensure the franchisee fulfils its franchise commitments? Q8 comments: Early withdrawal of the franchise or withdrawal of subsidy should be a sanction available in extreme circumstances. Achieving reliability, performance and service quality 9. Under the franchise, should we incentivise good performance or only penalise poor performance? Q9 comments: Both incentives and penalties required. 10. Should the performance regime be aligned with actual routes or service groups, or should there be one system for the whole of Scotland? Q10 comments: One system preferable. 11. How can we make the performance regime more aligned with passenger issues? Q11 comments: More consultation with local community councils and local staff required. 12. What should the balance be between journey times and performance? Q12 comments: A sensible balance is required, with journey times which are not too fast. It’s OK at the moment. 13. Is a Service Quality Incentive Regime required? And if so should it cover all aspects of stations and service delivery, or just those being managed through the franchise? Q13 comments: It is probably required and should cover all aspects. 14. What other mechanisms could be used for assessing train and station quality? Q14 comments: Stations benefit from local involvement. Scottish train services 15. Can better use be made of existing train capacity, such as increasing the permitted standing time beyond the limit of 10 minutes or increasing the capacity limit? What is an acceptable limit for standing times on rail services? Q15 comments: Fifteen minutes is perhaps the maximum acceptable standing time. 16. Should the number of services making use of interchange stations (both rail to rail and rail to other modes) be increased to reduce the number of direct services? What would be the opportunities and challenges of this? Q16 comments: It is inevitable that passengers will have to change more often in the future as services expand. New interchange stations may need to be built. The challenge will be to achieve reliable connections. 17. Should Government direct aspects of service provision such as frequency and journey time, or would these be better determined by the franchisee based on customer demand? Q17 comments: Both Government and franchisee need to cooperate on customer demand, taking account of local input. 18. What level of contract specification should we use the for the next ScotRail franchise? Q18 comments: As ever, a good balance is required, with some leeway provided, and some safeguards too. Such a system should be flexible. 19. How should the contract incentivise the franchisee to be innovative in the provision of services? Q19 comments: They should be asked to liaise directly with local Community Councils, as well as Local Authorities, and local staff on the ground. Scottish rail fares 20. What should be the rationale for, and purpose of, our fares policy? Q20 comments: The rationale should be to maximise revenue without reducing passenger numbers. 21. What fares should be regulated by government and what should be set on a commercial basis? Do your recommendations change by geographic area (the Strathclyde area example), or by type of journey (for example suburban or intercity)? Q21 comments: There should probably be a mixture of regulated fares and commercial judgments. However, the judgments have to be seen to be fair and free from anomalies. Geographical disparities may not be a good thing. 22. How should we achieve a balance between the taxpayer subsidy and passenger revenue contributions in funding the Scottish rail network? At what rate should fares be increased, and how feasible would it be to apply higher increases to Sections of the network which have recently been enhanced? Q22 comments: The fares can be increased annually by c. 6%, as in the past, but it’s not a good idea to increase fares on a particular route when a specific improvement is achieved. There is always an adverse customer reaction which immediately becomes counterproductive. 23. What should the difference be between peak and off-peak fares? Will this help encourage people to switch to travelling in the off-peak? Q23 comments: Peak/Off-peak balance is about right at the moment. Scottish stations 24. How should we determine what rail stations are required and where, including whether a station should be closed? Q24 comments: A wide variety of factors should be taken into account, and not just population within a specific radius of a station. Fare levels should be looked at, alternative bus services and connections need to be examined, population patterns and requirements need to be studied. These all need to be assessed, and not too objectively! 25. What are the merits or issues that arise from a third party (such as a local authority or local business) being able to propose, promote and fund a station or service? Q25 comments: There are many merits of local involvement at various levels – quality of service, fare anomalies, frequencies, station location. There are one or two pitfalls too, in the form of unreasonable demands, which should be resisted. 26. Should only one organisation be responsible for the management and maintenance of stations? If this was the franchisee how should that responsibility be structured in terms of leasing, investment, and issues relating to residual capital value? Q26 comments: Yes, it is better to have only one authority, and it should be a branch of Scotrail . Scotrail should own the stations? 27. How can local communities be encouraged to support their local station? Q27 comments: They can be encouraged through their local Community Councils and the local media. 28. What categories of station should be designated and what facilities should be available at each category of station? Q28 comments: Facilities should be determined by passenger numbers, and the facilities should be minimal at stations with a very low patronage. Please note that passenger numbers are not always accurately reflected by ticket sales from that station. Cross-border services 29. Should cross-border services continue to go north of Edinburgh? In operating alongside ScotRail services, how do cross-border services benefit passengers and taxpayers? And who should specify these services, the Department of Transport or the Scottish Ministers? Q29 comments: Cross-border services should certainly continue to go north of Edinburgh. Many people use them to travel from north of the Tay to England who might not use connecting services. Many people still do not trust a two- stage journey, especially the elderly.